Well, this being my first post on Ghumakkar.com, I would like to dedicate it to the memories I collected during my honeymoon trip to Himalayan Queen Darjeeling. I got married on Oct 5, 2009 and as it was preplanned, we had to proceed to Darjeeling on 11 Oct, after visiting and taking blessings of Mata Vaishno Devi. We came from there on 9th and after one day’s rest we came to Delhi as our flight was scheduled on 11 Oct, 12:30 pm. We had got our tickets confirmed few months back with a very good and budget offer. Thanks to Kingfisher Airlines.
11 Oct, 2009 – We reached airport one hour before flight time for all checking and other formalities. While roaming on the airport premises waiting for boarding call, I suddenly saw someone whom I knew very well but could not recognize at the moment and when he passed me, I suddenly shouted ‘Ajay Devgan‘. He was there on the airport also waiting for his flight to be scheduled. My husband was making fun of me later for first not recognizing him and then shouting his name :)… Soon after few minutes there was a boarding call and we boarded our flight. As I was flying for the first time, I was both excited and nervous at the same time.
The flight was till Bagdogra which is the nearest airport to Darjeeling which is almost 94kms and it takes nearly4 hours to reach Darjeeling. We reached Bagdogra by around 2 pm and started moving to Darjeeling by taxi we hired from Bagdogra airport. As soon as we passed through Siliguri there were tea gardens on both sides of the road and after some time we were climbing up the mountains leaving plains behind. Roads to Darjeeling are not much developed and some times you come across many scary and steep turns. Thanks to our Driver Shingye Tamang for his experienced driving skills. We passed through beautiful valleys, cloudy mountains, green woods, Darjeeling rail tracks, having world famous Darjeeling Tea and yummy momos. We reached Darjeeling by around 6 pm. Weather was amazing as it was raining lightly. We had our room booked in Hotel Sonar Bangla which is easily approachable. The room we got was also perfect as we could admire deep and beautiful valleys of Darjeeling, buildings decorated with prayer flags and mighty Kanchenjunga clearly from the window. We had dinner in the hotel only and since we were a little bit tired so we decided to remain in the hotel and retired to bed.
12 Oct – Next day, we wake up lazily and after getting ready, we head on to roam around the city and stated with a hunt for breakfast. After asking some people, we reached Hasty Tasty Restaurant located on Nehru Road which proceeds towards famous Chowrasta of Darjeeling. Being Punjabis, both me and hubby love to have paranthas and punjabi food, so we ordered Aaloo Paranthas with curd followed by Darjeeling tea. After that we moved towards Chowrasta, as the day was beautiful and sunny, we decided to sit for sometime on benches there ans bask in the beautiful sunlight and feel Darjeeling air and just roamed around the market nearby. In the evening after lunch we visited Padamaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park where I saw Red Pandas for the first time and they were just adorable, then we headed towards Natural History Museum which has a collection of over 4300 specimen, then to Tenzin Rock and last point was Happy Valley Tea Estate. The tea estate is astonishingly beautiful with deep green valleys and amazing tea gardens, totally a treat to the eyes. We had some photographs there, had some tea again and bought some tea packs for home and returned back to Chowrasta where some cultural festival was being organized which we enjoyed very much. We enjoyed having chicken lollipos and veg buns form some side vendors near Chowrasta. Then we took some photographs, visited some shops nearby, had dinner and returned back to our hotel.
This collage of photo graphs will take you to a virtual tour of Darjeeling….
To be continued…..
Dear Shefali,
Short & Sweet Post !!!!!
I wish the picture size could be bigger.
Darjeeling was my birthplace , that time my father was posted there who was working with Army. Darjeeling was to be a beautiful Hill station, but these day due to lack of maintenance & Political issues (Ghorkha Land) Darjeeling losing its beauty.
Waiting for next post.
Dear Mahesh
Thanks for your valuable comments and I agree with your thoughts. I have also read many of your posts and liked all of them especially your trip to Kingdom of Dreams which inspired me a lot to visit the place and I have planned to visit it on coming Valentine’s day with my hubby dear.
I have submitted the next part of the post to be published soon.
Thanks
Shefali
Dear Shefali,
Interesting post supported with beautiful pictures. Wish to see your next post with more & big size pictures.
Thanks.
Dear Mukesh
Thanks for your valuable comment and suggestion. Much appreciated :)
Shefali
Welcome aboard Shefali.
You chose a nice story to start your journey here :-). It finished too soon. Never been to Darjeeling so wanted to know more about the various places you visited and more pictures.
Hope to read part 2 as it gets published. Best Wishes and belated Congratulations !!
Thanks Nandan for your valuable comment and helping me while posting…
Part 2 is ready with deatils about places to visit in Darjeeling, have to just work on the pics for the post and will soon submit it for review.
Do visit Darjeeling if you have any plans for a holiday. It is a very beautiful and scenic holiday destination.
Shefali
Nice post Shefali. I have always dreamt of going to East India. probably would do it soon enough. :-)
Good first post Shefali. How was the first flight experience? Hope you rode on Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) for a short ride. I haven’t been there but heard and read a lot about it. Sadly it appears in the news for the wrong reason nowdays.
@Vibha Thanks a lot both for the comment and your guidance…
@Roopesh…Thanks for the appreciation…Flight experience to Bagdogra was really good and exciting as I was flying for the first time….W could not enjoy the toy train ride as it was not running a that time due to some issues which disappointed us also….It is true that this beautiful place is being ruined by the dirt of politics but I can’t deny the fact that people of Darjeeling are very innocent and helpful…
Shefali
I have been wanting to go to Darjeeling for the longest time and after reading ur post the desire has come up again! Hope to do it soon :)
hey Thanks for the comment Smita..Ya Darjeeling is truly a place one should go atleast once in his/her life.
You may not know but I am a regular reader of your blog and eagerly wait for your every post…Great work and yes congrats for the little one :)
Hi Shefali,
I hope to be tracing your footprints on the soil of Darjeeling parks, pagodas and temples soon. Only today, my wife informed me that an 8 days’ trip may be finalized in the month of May covering Darjeeling and nearby areas in the ‘holy’ company of her brother and sister-in-law (in case we are interested! :) As it has become my well-established habit now, I have started studying about the places to be visited so that I would already be knowing about the places through the eyes of my ghumakkar friends and would successfully turn myself in the role of a guide !
This short story of yours covered in two episodes has given a great start to my expedition. Needless to add that I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it highly useful too. Keep visiting places and keep writing about them.
Warm regards,
Sushant Singhal
Nice article. Keep Posting such nice articles.